Sticky Mosaics

Add stickers to pictures by color and number.

Sticky Mosaics by number kits have been a favorite of mine over the years. This craft is good for fine motor precision and visual perceptual skills. However, if you buy your own supplies like I do, they can be a bit pricey. I usually buy mine at Hobby Lobby where they go for $12.99 a box. Each box usually has 4 projects in it. I use my 40% off coupon that they publish weekly and end up paying about $2.00 per project. Not too bad considering you can draw them out over several sessions. I work with a young man who just completed a dinosaur picture last week. We had worked on it for about 20 minutes a session for about 8 sessions. Others, of course, will go faster. I usually switch colors or numbers several times during a session so that the individual gets additional practice looking at the key and matching colors and numbers.

For years Sticky Mosaics have come in the colorful boxes you see above with the cats and the butterflies. Fairly recently they have switched to the packaging you see with the dinosaurs, which has a lot more white space on it. You will still see both packaging on Amazon.

Another change they have made recently is they have added round stickers. Traditionally they have used square stickers and often included plastic gems. The square stickers came in multiple colors and textures. The gems were usually round or simple flower or oval shapes and came on a plastic sheet. The kids liked the gems and they were a pretty touch. They tended to be small, but lifting them from the plastic sheet, where they were positioned with space between them, was much easier than lifting the circle stickers that they have now. The square stickers are side by side and once you pick up the first one or two, getting your fingers under the next sticker in line is not too difficult. However, the circle stickers they are making now have space between them, meaning that you either have to push each stick out from the back so you can grab the edge or fold the whole square across so that the very tops of the stickers pop up and you can try to grab them from there.

Each placement for a sticker on a picture is numbered and each box comes with a key showing which color goes with each number. There is also a key printed on paper that comes inside the box. In the image above you can see that the stickers come on squares. They are all sticky, just pick one up and put it on the picture.

Left: This dinosaur picture is half completed. Right: The key with my stickers added.

  
The first thing I do when I open a new set is to place an actual sticker above each number on the key. Some of the colors or textures may be close and may be hard to distinguish otherwise (for some kids).

This craft is very popular with the kids.

Try this:

• Start a new square of stickers by taking off the first couple. Demo how to take them off one at a time.
  
• Work on numbers by placing stickers on all number ones first, then all number twos, etc.
• Announce a number and ask the individual to determine which sticker matches that number. Allow the individual to then scan the picture to find that number and cover a few (or all).
• Switch numbers several times during a session so that the individual gets practice looking at the key and identifying colors and finding new numbers on the picture.
• Hand the individual a square of stickers. Ask him to look at the key, find out which number is associated with that color and cover a few.
• Ask the individual to hold the stickers in the non-dominant hand and pick them off and place them with the dominant hand.

Work on visual discrimination, spatial relations, figure ground, eye-hand coordination, visual scanning, fine motor precision, manual dexterity, coordinated use of both hands, executive functioning skills, process skills, color and number identification, play and leisure exploration and participation

In the box: Usually 4 projects and stickers. Check specific box contents before purchasing.